Cobras versus Eagles

Cricket, say the pundits, is struggling to reinvent itself in the age of T20 — and yet, ironically, all the innovation is coming in the shortest format while the Tests and ODIs, which arguably need all the reinventing they can get in the face of dwindling spectator interest, watch passively.

This latest competition is a strange, unfamiliar brew — a mix of state teams, county teams and IPL franchises that seek to shuffle the existing order of domestic competition and conjure from it an international attention-grabber.

It is uncharted territory for a game largely built on the flag-and-country premise. A sense of history, of back-story, has powered our interest in the international calender: the tradition of the Ashes, the needle of Indo-Pak encounters, the trans-Tasman rivalry that spices what would be otherwise one-sided contests between New Zealand and Australia, the sense of schadenfreude as we watch the precipitous decline of the once all-conquering West Indies…

Absent this sense of history, the latest tournament in the calendar provides little for us to hang our emotional hats on. The question the next few days will answer is whether the League can rapidly build fresh points of interest, and create newer loyalties and fan following.

If it succeeds, the League will join the IPL as the cutting edge of an insurgency that puts club/franchise cricket in the driving seat, and in doing so overturns the global cricketing structure as we know it, topples the ICC from the driving seat, and reinvents the game’s architecture for the commercial age.

It is tempting to see this first season as the ‘acid test’, as the cliche-meisters have it — but my own sense is that this is merely a tentative dipping of the toes in untested waters.While there is blanket coverage in India, the television footprint is limited elsewhere [NB: This is the sense I got from talking to friends in the business. I understand Eurosport will beam the tournament in England — appreciate input from readers on which broadcaster is showing what, where]. If, however, this season proves a success, the television footprint will widen in the coming years, and that in turn will propel the tournament — and the concept of a club-driven format — towards critical mass.

Absent wall-to-wall global coverage, it will be difficult to judge the full potential of the CL at the end of the 16 days, and 23 games, to follow. But already, it has many of the ingredients necessary for success: a tight format, a clutch of international stars in the most attention-getting version of the game, a second opportunity within the year for the growing fan base of leading IPL teams to claim mind-share, and most importantly, money — not merely in terms of the sponsor interest which, friends tell me, is growing rapidly, but in terms of how the prize money on offer [and the possibility of foreign club sides getting Indian sponsorships] could end up changing priorities across the cricket-playing world.

Andy Bull, in a piece in The Guardian, looks at this aspect as it plays out on the England county scene:

For the first time, club cricket is going to emerge as a serious rival to international cricket. A rival for the attention of the fans, the time of the players, and the money of the sponsors. The jackpot for winning the 2007 world cup was $2.24m. The winner of the Champions League will walk away with $2.5m. By football’s standards that is small change. But in club cricket it’s a fortune. It is over three times what Durham received for taking the county championship title this year (and over 15 times what they won the year before that). More tellingly still, it is three times more than Surrey’s entire pre-tax profit in 2008, and six times that of Yorkshire.

If Sussex can play well over the next three weeks, this may turn out to be the most profitable year in their history, despite the fact that they have just been relegated from the first division of the county championship for the first time. All they need to do is win five games of Twenty20 – fewer than 200 overs of cricket. With that kind of financial incentive qualifying for the Champions League is going to become the top priority for every eligible team.

The injection of such a significant lump of cash into a single club would have interesting ramifications for the entire county championship – as it would for domestic leagues in each of the seven competing nations, with the exception of India. The disparity in operating budgets between the top Twenty20 teams and the others will become vast.

Another fascinating aspect, for me, is that besides putting club/franchise cricket on prime time and thus directly attacking the hegemony of the ICC’s international calendar, the League undermines traditional player loyalty and threatens a shake up that could accelerate the process of creating a breed of cricketing mercenaries. Andy Bull anticipated the point I intended to make, and so a clip from his piece suffices:

Wrapped up inside all this is another conundrum, neatly exemplified by Dirk Nannes. He took 12 wickets at an average of just 13 apiece in the KFC Big Bash for Victoria this year. This Friday however, he will be opening the bowling against Victoria, his own State side, for the Delhi Daredevils. Both teams have contracts with Nannes, but Delhi made sure to stipulate that, in the event of a clash, he would have to play for them. Understandably, Nannes team-mates are just a little unhappy about the prospect of lining up against their own star bowler as they compete for a $2.5m jackpot.

….

This situation is being replicated across the cricketing world. Farveez Maharoof had to choose between Wayamaba and Delhi, Brendon McCullum could have played for either Otago or New South Wales, Herschelle Gibbs for the Deccan Chargers or the Cape Cobras.

Starting 8 pm this evening, we will be treated to the latest cricket ‘spectacle’. For me, it is not the cricket on offer that is most fascinating, but the sense that we could be getting ringside seats as traditional structures are overturned and a new order takes over the cricket world.

Post navigation

6 thoughts on “Cobras versus Eagles”

Prem, one benefit of this competition is it immediately gives the folks in other countries a peg to hang their hopes on. If people in Oz couldnt care less about chennai super kings vs kings punjab (speaking of which it is soo ridiculous that a league would have two teams with same names – imagine Chicago Bulls vs LA Bulls) a match between bangalore and victoria immediately has the ‘us vs them’ angle, the first step towards viewer interest in sport and consequently loyalty.

I have a feeling that this tournament will do better than IPL for various reasons.

There will be some inter nation rivalry. While in IPL it was tough for many to choose which side to support, here people will have clubs from their countries to choose from. People from say, England and Australia will have an emotional motive to watch – at least to see if their teams can beat the “mercenery” IPL teams at their own game:)

New talent will be seen from differant countries. It was boring to see only Indian domestic talent. It will be a fantastic oppurtunities for not so well known players from other countries to shine andget known.

Gilchrist and Kumble – Another oppurtunity to see these two showing the tyros how it is done. It is a shame that Warne and Hayden cannot be there.

Right, thats true people from other countries will be more interested to watch CL than IPL.. But what about IPL teams which didn’t qualify? (KKR, Chennai, Mumbai..etc) I don’t know if people in those parts are really interested in CL..

It is really a shame to be missing Warne and Hayden…
I remember in ICL (Indian Cricket League – Rebel) after the first season, there was a three nation tournament, ICL India, ICL Pak, ICL World XI…

The world XI comprised of best available talents in ICL who aren’t playing for India or Pak..

Same way, I would have wished to see an IPL XI to take part as 3rd team from India along with two finalists..

One thing about history – if something doesnt start, how can it have history? I know you probably didnt mean it the way the usual English folks derisively dismiss anything new as lacking history so unimportant. But it always baffles me how that becomes an automatic disqualifier.

I did not say the lack of a history disqualifies something, mate. I merely mention that lack, to underline the point that initiatives such as the IPL and the CL seek to define the way we follow cricket — where earlier the history provided the back story to major cricketing encounters, we are now confronting a new paradigm, and having to rework our mindset accordingly.

I’m eagerly waiting to see retired greats like Anil Kumble, Adam Gilchrist and may be Glen McGrath too…

It makes me wonder when I look at Dravid and Kumble… these two are not a fixture in Indian Cricket team for T20 (Kumble has retired from all forms). However they are vital part of the team which qualified to CL T20 from India…

Just Boasting

Me in 140 characters

Search

Five of India’s most iconic one-day players of the last decade will never be seen again. That is how sunset comes: without a “farewell series”, without emotional speeches and orchestrated jamborees. Sunset comes via a televised news report. A list of names that you scan, your heart dropping by degrees as you go down the list and fail to find your name in the […]

Tomorrow makes 30 years since the day 40 tons of poisonous gas leaked out of a factory, killing over 20,000 and injuring or otherwise harming over 500,000 in arguably the worst industrial disaster of our age. Why have we moved on? Why is there collective amnesia, not merely in the rest of the country but in Bhopal itself? Why, asks the talented Priyanka Dube […]

He bounces a wounded cry down into the canyons of the Tigris River: a blade of rusty water that saws its way through the bedrock of time. Ali’s song is a hymn to true love, which is to say, to love unrequited. It is the tale of a beautiful woman who remains blind to the longings of the singer. It is a lyric of loneliness. Of waiting. Of resignation—a form of […]

I have spent the better part of my life — or maybe it just seems that way; you know how it is when you are frustrated, a day seems like a year — “reporting in to” people who have never spent a day in a newsroom. I’ve spent the better part of my life — or so it seems to me; see above — shocked at how little effort there is, institutionally, to stay on top of […]

N Srinivasan is such a dude! That he went to court, claiming the Mudgal Commission had vindicated him and demanding that he be reinstated as board president and further, be allowed to contest elections, was no surprise. The real kicker lay in a little codicil that went unnoticed (emphasis mine): Srinivasan also asked the court to re-instate the officials […]

I’m guessing the hardest thing to do when you stumble is to recover your balance and gracefully move on? Which, among other things, includes refraining from cover-your-ass statements so disingenuous, it only draws additional attention to the initial stumble? Should a man against whom charges of rape (or other serious crimes, for that matter) be invited onto […]